Quaestor owner in custody

As the owner of the insolvent brokerage firm is taken into police custody, the leading left-wing daily contends that the authorities, by hesitating to take action in time, assisted Quaestor’s CEO in syphoning money off from the company. A pro-government commentator believes that the government was right to save public assets deposited in Quaestor.

Police confirmed that Csaba Tarsoly, owner of the bankrupt Quaestor brokerage house (see BudaPost through March) has been arrested. Earlier in March, Tarsoly ceded his post as CEO to an unemployed person, but after accusations that he wanted to escape criminal liability for illegally transferring the remaining funds to safe havens, he took back his post.

In a front page editorial Népszabadság accuses the authorities of having assisted Tarsoly in his efforts to syphon money from Quaestor. While police hesitated to put him under arrest, Tarsoly could still take decisions which may affect small investors negatively, the leading left-wing daily suspects.

Magyar Hírlap’s Zsolt Bayer finds the Left’s accusations ‘peculiar’. The pro-government columnist claims that the former Socialist-Liberal governments decided that the activities of brokerage houses should only be examined go closely every five years. The next review was due exactly this year, so the Orbán government had no opportunity to find out about the problems earlier. Bayer believes that it was a wise decision to save public assets through ordering the withdrawal of state deposits in brokerage houses. He also dismisses the idea that PM Orbán should have informed the public if he suspected Quaestor’s imminent fall. If the Prime Minister did so, he would have caused an immediate run on the banks, Bayer argues.

Tags: brokerage, Orbán